While ratings for Congress are still nothing to write home about, they are more positive than they’ve been in nearly five years. But most voters still think Congress is a bunch of sellouts.

A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 16% of Likely U.S. Voters think the current Congress is doing a good or excellent job, up from 11% in January and the highest level of approval measured since August 2010. Fifty-two percent (52%) still rate Congress poorly, but that’s down from 58% last month and is the lowest negative rating since June 2011. (To see survey question wording, click here.)

Last month marked the first time that Congress' positive ratings had risen out of single digits in a year-and-a-half of monthly surveys.

However, just 14% think members get reelected because they actually do a good job representing their constituents, although that’s the highest finding since tracking of this question began in April 2013. Sixty-seven percent (67%) think they're reelected because the election rules are rigged to benefit incumbents. A sizable 20% are not sure.

Most voters (62%) also continue to believe members of Congress are willing to sell their vote for either cash or a campaign contribution, but that’s down slightly from recent surveys. Eighteen percent (18%) disagree, and 21% are undecided.

Fifty-seven percent (57%) think it’s at least somewhat likely that their own representative in Congress already has sold his or her vote, up five points from November. Twenty-seven percent (27%) disagree. This includes 24% who say it’s Very Likely their representative has sold his or her vote and just six percent (6%) who think it’s Not At All Likely. Sixteen percent (16%) are not sure.

The survey of 800 Likely Voters was conducted on February 18-19, 2015 by Rasmussen Reports. The margin of sampling error is +/- 3.5 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence. Field work for all Rasmussen Reports surveys is conducted by Pulse Opinion Research, LLC. See methodology.

Overall, 31% think their local congressional representative shares their ideology. Thirty percent (30%) think their local representative is more conservative than they are, up from 26% in November and the highest finding in regular tracking. Twenty-five percent (25%) think their local representative is more liberal than they are, showing no change from last month. Fourteen percent (14%) are not sure.

With Republicans now in charge of both the House and Senate, it's not surprising that GOP voters are much less critical than Democrats and those not affiliated with either of the major political parties. Thirty-eight percent (38%) of Republicans now say their representative shares their ideology, compared to 29% of Democrats and 28% of unaffiliated voters.

Men and voters 40 and over are more critical of Congress than women and younger voters are.

Forty-five percent (45%) of the Political Class think Congress is doing a good or excellent job, compared to just 12% of Mainstream voters. While an overwhelming majority (73%) of Mainstream voters think most members of Congress are willing to sell their vote for cash or campaign contributions, just 26% of Political Class voters agree.

The survey of 800 Likely Voters was conducted on February 18-19, 2015 by Rasmussen Reports. The margin of sampling error is +/- 3.5 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence. Field work for all Rasmussen Reports surveys is conducted by Pulse Opinion Research, LLC. See methodology.

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